The History of Typographic Writing—The 20Th Century, Volume 2
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274 TUGboat, Volume 38 (2017), No. 2 Review and summaries: The History of Jacques Andr´e: Introduction Typographic Writing — The 20th century This is the last volume in the series created by Yves Volume 2 (ch. 1–5), from 1950 to 2000 Perrousseaux, on the “History of Typographic Writ- Charles Bigelow ing” from its beginning to the end of the 20th century. In the 20th century, the powers of social and Histoire de l’Ecriture´ Typographique — le XXi`eme informational functions of writing, previously distin- si`ecle; tome II/II, de 1950 `a2000. Jacques guished in part by their modes of production — for Andr´e,editorial direction. Atelier Perrousseaux, example, public inscriptions and signage, book and Gap, France, 2016, ISBN 978-2-36765-006-7, news publishing, and personal handwriting — were http://tinyurl.com/ja-xxieme-ii. 364 pp., expanded by technological advances. Commercial, 391 figures (illustrations, photos, diagrams, etc.), governmental, political, and educational institutions illustrated end papers. Also available as an ebook. used typographic media to ever-greater extent and The book is in French. Volume 1 (reviewed in effect, although individual expression remained, for TUGboat 38:1) covers the years 1900 to 1950. a time, limited to handwriting and typewriting. By Occasional commentary below by the reviewer is the end of the century, however, new technologies of placed in square brackets; the main text summarizes typography vastly enhanced the power, extent, and the original writing. graphical range of personal written expression. This second volume of the history of 20th cen- tury typography is intended for general readers in- terested in the history, art, and technology of the century, as well for specialists and students in the field. It has been written by ten different authors and thus reflects as many different perspectives and styles. In addition to text and copious illustrations, it includes an extensive bibliography. 1. Alice Savoie: Typography transformed: the era of photocomposition (La typographie en pleine mutation: l’`erede la photocompositions) “Photocomposition before 1945: false starts and early experiments.” In the early decades of the 20th century, sev- eral inventions applied photography to type setting. Despite clever mechanisms and novel names, the Bawtree, Photoline, Rotofoto, Thothomic, and Uher- type proto-phototypesetters proved less efficient, less economical, and lower in quality than established hot-metal composing machines and hence failed to become commercially successful. This first phase of a æ A Æ b photocomposition B was followed by the so-called “first c C d D generation” photocomposers — the Intertype Foto- setter and the Monophoto, which adapted hot-metal e E f machines by replacing the casting unit with a photo F g G unit. These machines produced commercially ade- h H i I quate output, j but were not widely used. “Second generation” photo-electronic systems, J k K l especially L the pioneering Lumitype invented in France m M n in the N 1940s by Moyroud and Higonnet but devel- oped in the U.S. as the Photon (sold in France as the o œ O Œ Lumitype), p revolutionized text composition in the P q Q 1960s r and 1970s. Third generation phototypesetters R s were S based on cathode ray tube (CRT) imaging and End paper (fragment): Apple Chancery typeface and computer control, and fourth-generation machines t typography both by Kris Holmes. T were u based on laser imaging. U v w W Charles Bigelow x X y Y z Z & TUGboat, Volume 38 (2017), No. 2 275 The phototypesetting revolution was not merely of type designers. There is hardly a new family of technical but also social. Fast typing abilities on sans-serif types today that does not owe a debt to QWERTY keyboards (AZERTY in France) coupled Univers, whether overt or unacknowledged.] with quick learning of computer mark-up codes and As phototype achieved commercial success in commands replaced the mechanical skills learned the 1960s and 1970s, more firms commissioned and from long apprenticeship in hot-metal type technol- developed original typefaces for photocomposition. ogy. “Photocomposition enabled the type-compositor At Monotype, John Dreyfus commissioned new photo to trade the blue collar laborer’s shirt and noisy, text faces by Frutiger, Jose Mendoza, and Chris heavy machines, for the white collar office shirt and Brand. At Linotype, Mike Parker commissioned precision knives and photochemical processes.” new script faces by Matthew Carter and Hermann [CB: Thus began a trend toward higher educa- Zapf, as well as new types for Arabic, Hindi, Hebrew, tion and social mobility for typographers, women Greek, and other non-Latin alphabets. and men, reflected academically, first in the award- Foreseeing typeface piracy in the photo era, ing of Bachelor’s, then Master’s, and most recently, Charles Peignot, with Stanley Morison, Jan van Ph.D. degrees in typography, supplanting the exclu- Krimpen, Hermann Zapf, and others, formed the In- sively masculine apprenticeships of older generations ternational Typographic Association (l’Association of typographers.] Typographique Internationale, ATypI) to promote intellectual and artistic property protection for type- 2. Alice Savoie: The creation of new face designs. Several American photocomposing ma- typefaces for photocomposition (Concevoir de chine manufacturers prospered by developing cheaper nouveaux caract`erespour la photocomposition) and faster machines but plagiarizing typefaces, rely- The designs of Adrian Frutiger and Ladislas Mandel. ing on lack of American copyright for type designs Phototypesetting machines transformed not only [still the case] as well as weak or absent protections the process of composing texts but also the process in other countries. of making type. Type fonts ceased to be miniature Beginning in the 1970s, the International Type- metal sculptures and instead became abstract photo- face Corporation commissioned new types and mod- graphic images, requiring new techniques and often, ernized versions of traditional types for photocom- new designers. position. New ITC types by designers Ed Benguiat, In 1953, Charles Peignot, director of the De- Hermann Zapf, and others were licensed by many berny & Peignot foundry in Paris, hired a young photo and digital composing machine manufacturers Swiss designer, Adrian Frutiger, and assembled a and found wide popularity, especially in advertising team that included Ladislas Mandel and Lucette and display typography. Girard, to produce high-quality photo fonts for the Lumitype photo-typesetter. The team first adapted Christian Laucou: First interlude: popular metal faces like Garamond, Baskerville, and Classification of typefaces and cataloging Times Roman to the strictures and distortions of of fonts (Premi`erepause: classification des high-speed optical imaging, but then Frutiger per- caract`ereset catalogage des fontes) suaded Peignot to support development of a totally As typeface variations multiplied, type classification new family of sans-serif types based on Frutiger’s became a perennially fascinating intellectual exercise. student studies at the Zurich School of Arts and Classification systems were proposed by, among oth- Crafts [where he was taught by Walter K¨ach and ers: Thibaudeau in 1921; Audin in 1929; Duvill´ein Alfred Willima]. 1931; Tschichold in 1951; Vox in 1952; Turner, Berry The result in 1957 was the astonishing Univers & Johnson in 1953; and the German DIN standard family. In the metal type era, extensive font families in 1962. Most of these shared, to varying degrees, a like those of P.-S. Fournier and M.F. Benton had small set of core classes denoting text typefaces of been cut incrementally in various sizes and styles historical eras, supplemented by stylistic variations over years or decades, but Univers burst forth from mainly produced in the 19th century. Differences Deberny & Peignot all at once in 21 variations of between classification systems were partly due to weight, width, roman and italic, and all photograph- lumping or splitting of a few classes, like the gothic ically scalable to many sizes. Typography would scripts, the numerous sans-serifs, and multitudinous never be the same again. “fantasy” display faces. [Univers was enthusiastically embraced by mod- The Vox classification was adopted by ATypI ernist graphic designers and over ensuing decades, in 1962 and remains widely used and useful, but its basic concepts were adopted by later generations new classifications continued to be proposed, in part Review: The History of Typographic Writing — The 20th century; vol. 2 (ch. 1–5) 276 TUGboat, Volume 38 (2017), No. 2 because increasing multiplicity of type forms ren- popular that traditional type foundries created print- dered older classifications incomplete, and partly ing typefaces to imitate the typewritten look. The because perceived flaws in the logic or concepts of popular Courier, designed for IBM electric typewrit- previous systems spurred new efforts. Bringhurst, ers at IBM in 1956 by Howard Kettler, was based on in 1992 and later, utilized art historical nomencla- geometric slab-serif printing types. Sans-serif, italic, ture as well as biological taxonomy to articulate and all-capital typewriter faces were